Human Factors for Veterinary Teams – What is it? Why is it important? Where did it come from?

Dr Hannah Godfrey BVetMed MRCVS, Community Lead at VetLed

Whatever our role, regardless of how qualified, experienced, and knowledgeable we are, there are always obstacles that get in the way of us doing our job to the best of our ability. This can feel enormously frustrating. That’s things like conflict with colleagues, feeling unable to take breaks, having no method for coping under pressure, or feeling like we can’t speak up about a mistake made by ourselves or a colleague. There are so many examples of these barriers, and the field of Human Factors provides understanding, guidance, and tools proven effective in human medicine and other non-medical but equally high-risk professions. However, this area of study is relatively new to veterinary medicine, with many being unaware of the subject or put off by the complexity and technical language often used when talking about Human Factors.

In this blog, we’ll explain the term ‘Human Factors’ in the context of our day-to-day veterinary work, clarifying why it’s so important in our profession, today and for the future.

What do we mean by Human Factors?

Human Factors is the study of the way we work and the building blocks that contribute to making or breaking our performance. You might think that our clinical knowledge is the whole story when it comes to performance, because we couldn’t work in veterinary without it, but knowledge and skills are only a small piece of the puzzle. Have you ever asked yourself, “Why didn’t that go how I expected? I didn’t do anything wrong”?

When we work as vets, we’re affected by interactions with our colleagues, bosses, and clients. We’re also affected by how we feel, how tired we are, and how much time we have. Then there’s our environment – how medication or equipment is set up, the tools available to overcome our brain’s human limitations, how we communicate essential information, how we treat each other, and protocols that might be outdated, ignored, or otherwise unfit for purpose. As successful, driven people, it can be easy to think that to get good patient outcomes, we should just push harder, or study more, but the evidence across multiple industries suggests otherwise.

Where did Human Factors come from?

Human Factors and ergonomics are said to have originated around the time of the Second World War, evolving and growing as a discipline in the decades that followed. Over time, the study of human performance continued and the findings have been adopted and applied within many safety-critical professions, including aviation, transportation, and human health care. While the veterinary profession has only recently begun introducing Human Factors, the concepts are easily applied to enhance and complement our veterinary skills.

Why is Human Factors training important?

Patient Safety

As a caregiving profession, it’s probably no surprise that improved patient safety is one of the most important and celebrated outcomes of integrating Human Factors concepts into veterinary workplaces. After all, being able to make a difference to the health and wellbeing of the animals we treat is what drives us to do what we do, despite the challenges of long working hours, high pressure, and stress.

Understanding Human Factors helps us take a step away from the stresses, pressure, and practice culture that contribute to us doing work ‘the way we always have.’ Once we can view our work, environment, and behaviour more objectively, and acknowledge our challenges and limitations without judgement, we’re in a better place to create solutions. Perhaps those two medications do look too similar to be stored next to each other, or maybe a checklist would be valuable to prevent a patient from receiving the wrong procedure.

Human Factors training also nudges us to look at our practice culture, how we behave as a team, and how comfortable we feel being vulnerable or making a mistake, and understand the impact these components of work can have on the patient care we can deliver. Team psychological safety, where people feel safe to speak up about problems and mistakes is essential for the team to learn and grow to avoid future unexpected outcomes or adverse events.

Team Wellbeing

It’s not just our patients that are important. We’re a caregiving profession, but who’s taking care of us? Without prioritising our own mental and physical health and wellbeing, we’re not in a position to deliver the best care to our patients.

The VetLed HALT campaign encourages us to notice our physiological needs and make it the norm within our teams to address them. The HALT acronym stands for ‘Hungry/Thirsty, Anxious/Angry, Late/Lonely, Tired’ and downloadable veterinary team wellbeing resources, including practice posters, aim to give staff regular reminders to halt, take a break, and have a drink, some food, rest, or get outside for a moment.

Client Satisfaction

Our clients want the best for their pets, and practising Human Factors principles means that we can improve our patient outcomes. However, that’s not the only way that a Human Factors approach can help reduce client complaints and improve the vet-client bond. The focus on communication and civility helps us skillfully interact, with curiosity, and without judgement – and this applies whether we’re talking to our colleagues, our bosses, or our clients.

Better for Business

What happens when you combine better patient outcomes, happier clients, and contented staff? It means less of our time is spent responding to client complaints; less time and money is spent on recruiting new staff; and the business becomes more profitable. Staff are happier because they’re bonded with and supported by their colleagues, but they also have more time to take breaks, make phone calls, and perform clinical tasks, and they’re not picking up the slack in a short-staffed team. Over time, these positives grow, feeding into each other, and practices gain a strong reputation both with potential clients and potential staff.

Summary

The term Veterinary Human Factors might sound complicated, but this topic is full of a wide range of small, implementable steps that vets and vet nurses can take to address those niggling problems at work.

When we consider improved patient safety, improved team wellbeing, improved client satisfaction, and improved business success…it makes a lot of sense to start exploring this component of veterinary practice.

Find out more about VetLed’s conference, vet team training and online veterinary CPD on our website.